The Cecil Whig., 1887-07-09
HERO WORSHIP.

IL ID llO ulIOlilll'oh lllItlS ~ uS3l
age persons deplore the degeneracy of
the times, and particularly the filling
of in the number OF great men, who
like Clay, Webster and Calhoun tow
cred in their day above the heads of
their contemporaries, in ability and in
lluenCe. 1t is true that no statesman
OF the present day ranks rs far above
the average of his fellow-men as those
Just referred to, but the reason lies in
the fact that the masses of the Ameri-
can people have been elevated in the
scale of intelligence and education, and
if so wide difference no longer exists
between them and their leading states
men, it is not because the standard OF
requirement of our public men has
been lowered, but because that of the
people has been elevated. The Senate
of the United States contains today,
and has contained many times since,
Clay and Webster won applause in it,
scores Of men, just as able lawyers, and
fully rs wise in national councils as
they. Besides, the American people
are not SO much given to hero worship
as in former generations. Our diStin-
gulshed public men do not attract as
much attention in public places as for
merly. Speaking of this fact a we'll
known journalist recites this incident:
| sat at dinner with Mr., Chauncey
NJ. Depew, in Chicago hotel, not
long ago, and this was the topic of our
conversation. Said he, "There are
four United States Senators in this
house, and three eX-Cabinet officers,
and they come and so, and no one
stops to look at them. When | was a
boy would have walked twenty miles
to see a United States Senator" Per
haps there may be just as much curl
osity about the personal habits and
casual remarks of prominent statesmen
today as ve~-there never was time
when so much trothy, nconseQuential
stuff was printed about them in the
newspapers-but there is not that gen
uine interest in them and in their pub
lie acts that there used to be.
There is less interest in public affairs,
also, than there once was. The coun-
try has grown faster in the last quarter
of a century than the men in it have.
In the last generation public life offered
the best opportunities for distinction to
ambitious men Of great ability Now
the ablest men in the country are not
in Congress nor in the executive de
partments of the Government, but are
managing railroads, organizing power
full companies and financial trusts, pro
jecting large industrial enterprises,
editing and publishing great newspa-
pers or establishing banks which, on a
capital Of S5oo, 900, may perhaps make
$4,000, 900 IN year or two. If a man
shows marked ability IN public place,
some wealthy corporation gobbles HIN
up and pays him salary two or three
times as great as he received in Office.
Another reason why hero worship
is declining is to be found in the rapid
depletion of our stock of heroes. We
are making no new ones we have had
no war for nearly quarter of a cen
tury, with its opportunities to win glory
on the tented field no very exciting
questions are before Congress. And
the heroes that we have been accus-
toned to worship are fast disappearing.
Grant is dead Garfield is dead Logan
and Hancock and Mcclellan have been
mustered into the Grand Army on the
other side of the line, and most OF the
statesmen of the heroic age are serving
in the Eternal Congress of Nations.
The hero of the future must have the
opportunity to be a man OF grand
achievements, and when he appears he
will have worshipers sincere and nu-
merous, ready to pay homage to great
ness as in times gone by.